Skip to main content
SLU publication database (SLUpub)
Conference abstract - Peer-reviewed, 2011

Dairy farmer and the veterinarian: an issue of communication

Hakansson, P.; Persson, Y.; Bage, R.

Abstract

Effective communication is usually not known to be one of the veterinarian's strengths. Four of five complaints to the disciplinary board deal with misunderstandings or lack of commitment. The purpose of this study was to investigate how skillful the veterinarian communicates his or hers advice to the dairy farmer. Five specific counseling situations with five veterinarians have been evaluated. All had undergone the Swedish Dairy Association's course 'Halsopaket Mjolk', a continuation course for herd health veterinarians. The sessions were recorded and analyzed using a combination of standardized subjective and objective methods regarding the structure, LSF (listen, summarize, continue to ask questions), SMART goals, open or closed questions and balance of the conversation. According to the results, veterinarians in this study know how they in theory should use effective communication; however they do not practice this to the extent that they should. Dairy farmers have generally been satisfied with the veterinarian's input. But the survey shows that there is room for improvement within the veterinary medical advice. Veterinarian's communication with dairy entrepreneurs needs improvement! This is achieved through structure and good balance in the communication. Aspects of the work related to communication: The study evaluates the communication between the veterinarian and the dairy farmer during counseling.

Published in

Book title: Udder Health and Communication
ISBN: 978-90-8686-185-9, eISBN: 978-90-8686-742-4
Publisher: Wageningen Academic Publishers

Conference


International Conference on Udder Health and Communication, OCT 25-27, 2011, Utrecht, NETHERLANDS

      SLU Authors

      • UKÄ Subject classification

      Veterinary Science
      Animal and Dairy Science

      Publication Identifiers

      DOI: https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-742-4_30

      Permanent link to this page (URI)

      https://res.slu.se/id/publ/35591